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Spotlight on the database

The Urban Melbourne Project Database has reached 1,200 entries for the first time. Now encompassing 1,200 current developments up to and including construction phase, the Project Database allows for an unparalleled glimpse into metropolitan Melbourne's ever changing face. While many recent projects have left the database owing to their completion, a general upswing in application submissions (particularly for small and medium sized residential...

While industry temporarily shut down during the Christmas/New Year period (and us taking a break from publishing articles), this did not stop the project database from growing in size. While you were on holiday, 33 new projects were added. In what was broadly representative of the development scene in Melbourne during 2015, low-rise and mid-rise buildings (anything up to 12 levels) outnumber the number of high-rise proposals by a factor of eight...

A string of new entries has pushed the Urban Melbourne Project Database to 1,000 listings. That is 1,000 projects which have a status of planning assessment, approved, registration & sales or are under construction throughout metropolitan Melbourne. 2015 has seen the Project Database subject to expanded criteria and a subscription service, with both having aided in the database reaching the 1,000 listing milestone. The primary criteria for...

Architects. They're the glue in the development process: interpreting, balancing and binding the various capitalist, creative and regulatory inclinations, goals and motivations. This special role that architects play ensures there's quite a lot of them if a city is pivoting toward a medium and high density development future like Melbourne is. Our project database has over 200 different firms that are linked to at least one project. The...

The Urban Melbourne project database has passed a milestone 800 listings, with the expectation that 1,000 listings will be reached by year's end. The ever expanding project database has gathered approximately 40 new listings in the last fortnight, with a raft of new (and mostly residential) planning applications collected in recent weeks. Having always been particularly strong in capturing large projects delivered by notable developers, the...

This winter shapes as a boom period for Melbourne's commercial builders if the number of projects beginning their construction cycle is any indicator. Sweeping through the Urban Melbourne project database and limiting a project to its early works stage, specifically piling, site retention and bulk excavation, there are no less than 42 projects spread throughout metropolitan Melbourne in their infancy. Urban Melbourne's project database is...

Since resuming normal operations post the festive period, Urban Melbourne's project database has averaged one additional new project entry per day during 2015. Updated existing entries aside, no less than 50 new residential projects have taken their place within the database. While a select few new developments added during 2015 are either at sales or under construction, the vast majority of new listings are either seeking or have recently...

Now that we have collectively recovered from the Christmas and New Year period and plodded our way back into work, it's time to pay attention! As at the time of publishing, we are tracking a total of 568 residential projects across four different project statuses. Of the projects where we do have total residential data, there is a total of 58,478 units. Overwhelmingly the most common building type is the mid-rise representing 51% of all projects...

The last week or so has seen in the vicinity of 30 new medium to high-density residential entries added to the Urban Melbourne Project Database , along with numerous existing database listing upgrades as proponents of the next wave of apartment projects ready themselves for their respective sales campaigns. In the course of adding these fresh projects it became evident that this 'next wave' of new apartment projects has Melbourne's suburbs in...

With winter all but a memory the season to get out and about is upon us. Judging by the sheer volume of new additions to the Urban Melbourne Project Database developers have the same notion in mind. Within the last week or so in near enough to 30 residential apartment developments have been added to the Project Database, signifying the next push of medium and high-density projects into the Melbourne market. Shown below are a selection of newly...

Policy, Culture & Opinion

The New Urban Agenda was officially adopted in Quito, Ecuador in the last plenary of the Habitat III conference. The agenda provides a 20-year “roadmap” to guide sustainable urban development globally. The text of the New Urban Agenda itself was agreed well before Habitat III at the UN General Assembly in September, during an extraordinary informal negotiation session that lasted for more than 30 hours.

Visual Melbourne

Melbourne’s architectural landscape is a wonderful juxtaposition of modern and Victorian architecture. Although the CBD has been peppered with many skyscrapers, its historical structures have won Melbourne the title of “Australia’s most European city”.

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Transport & Design

Melbourne’s tram network may hold the key to providing the dense network of high frequency rapid transport that would provide world class connectivity in the inner-city and CBD. Melbourne and New York are very different cities. Drawing too close a parallel between any two cities can be a folly; however New York and Melbourne share some near similarities where it counts.

Sustainability & Environment

Timber mid-rise buildings are becoming the preferred choice for many stakeholders in Melbourne, due to a combination of factors, including cost-effectiveness, liveability, ease and efficiency of construction. Within the recent National Construction Code change, Deemed-To-Satisfy provisions allow mid-rise timber construction for buildings up to 25 metres “effective height” (typically, eight storeys).